Rents fall by up to 20 percent

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Ah, finally, a breath of fresh air as far as the housing market is concerned. Manhattan rents are down by as much as 20 percent.

Rents are at their lowest since 2007, according to the Manhattan Rental Market Report. That's down an average of nearly 7 percent in doorman buildings and half as much in non-doorman buildings – and all it took was a global housing and credit meltdown.

The average one-bedroom in a non-doorman building dropped to $2,605, while the monthly price in a doorman building fell to $3,299. Rent for a studio in a doorman building on the East Side fell by more than 20 percent to $2,027. And in Chelsea, you could get a doorman studio for $2,515 per month -- nearly 15 percent less than last year.

Include landlord sweeteners like payment of broker fees and a few months free rent in the calculations and rent across Manhattan may be even lower than it appears in the report, The Real Estate Group's Daniel Baumtold The New York Post.

"The fact is that many of the rental prices are significantly lower than 2007, which leads us to believe we are around 2006 pricing," Baum said.

But it's not all good news in rent world. Prices are still climbing in some downtown neighborhoods, thanks to the construction of high-priced luxury buildings that have opened their doors to tenants in the last year. In trendy Tribeca, a non-doorman studio soared by more than 22 percent higher, at about $3,283. Lower East Side rents are up as well – by more than 15 percent to $2,744.

While plummeting rents is a positive sign, housing prices across the New York metropolitan area have yet to show signs of a rebound. Single-family homes are worth about 12 percent less, on average, than they were last year, according to the Post. Sales prices for homes nationwide are down just short of 20 percent.